November 26, 2013 — According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), around 45 million people are involved in the global fisheries industry, 5.4 million of which are women, accounting for around 12 percent of the workforce.
On an EU level, Eurostat and STECF put the percentage of women in fisheries related activity in 2012 at 12.6 percent. Seafood processing accounted for 65 percent, aquaculture for 32 percent and fishing for just 3 percent.
The percentage of total female employment varies from country to country, with France top of the list at 17.7 percent, followed by Poland at 14.4 percent, U.K. at 14.6 percent, Greece at 14.4 percent and Spain at 13.6 percent. Apart from Latvia at 12 percent, women in other EU countries make up less than 10 percent of the workforce in the fisheries and aquaculture sector. However, information is not available for all member states as some currently neither collect nor report accurate gender-based statistics.
Many women have traditionally worked in small family fishing or seafood businesses or supported their male relatives by undertaking unpaid tasks, and have consequently received no recognition nor access to state social benefits. To improve this situation, a recent EU Directive 2010/41/EU recognized the contribution of life partners put the onus on member states to implement relevant legislation by August 2013.